Walmart pulls Cosmopolitan from its checkout aisles

Walmart has decided to pull Cosmopolitan magazine from its checkout aisles at 5,000 stores across the United States after years of pressure from an activist group that accuses the publication of being “hyper-sexualized” and “degrading.”

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a Washington-based nonprofit formerly known as Morality in Media, said it had long singled out Cosmopolitan — as opposed to, say, the National Enquirer or other provocative content in the checkout line — because the Hearstowned magazine was “targeting young girls with its advertisements.”

“It’s on Snapchat. It has these brightly-colored pink covers,” Haley Halverson, the center’s vice president of advocacy and outreach, told The Washington Post on Wednesday. “There are Disney stars that appear on it and the Jonas Brothers and One Direction . . . but at the same time it’s promoting that its young readership engage in sexting, group sex.”

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, founded in 1962 to combat pornography and sex trafficking, has also recently pushed back on commercials and media content it has deemed sexually explicit. For years, the group’s leaders tried to persuade Walmart and other retailers to remove Cosmopolitan from its checkout displays, where they say “customers should not be forced to be exposed to this content.”

Walmart confirmed the magazine would no longer be located in checkout aisles but would be available elsewhere in its stores. “As with all products in our store, we continue to evaluate our assortment and make changes,” Walmart spokeswoman Meggan Kring said in an email. “While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised were heard.”

The group credited the #MeToo movement for finally convincing Walmart officials to do so.

Walmart’s decision drew mixed reactions. Some supported the aggressive push by the nonprofit group, which celebrated the retailer’s move as an “EXCITING victory!” Others said that choosing to focus on bringing down Cosmopolitan was “blatantly distorting” the #MeToo movement, with some even threatening to boycott Walmart.